Re: [Arx-users] Re: [Gnu-arch-users] State of the Arches

[Kevin Smith]

Hi,

Thanks for cross-posting this. I have chosen to reply only to the ArX 
list, partly because I do not find the arch list to be a welcoming 
place. I suspect my comments above and below (and others that I choose 
not to make because they would be even more inflammatory) might lead to 
strong (and unproductive) reactions among the arch developers.

Feel free to cross-post this back if you really think it would be helpful.

> > `ArX' has fallen out of compatability, as far as I know, with `tla'
> > and `baz'.   It might be helpful, incidentally, for the greater
> > Arch community to help repair any residual personality rift between
> > Landry and I, at least enough to repair bidirectional compatability
> > between all branches.

Compatibility would be great, except that arch is just so complex. As 
far as I can tell, Walter has managed to capture the essential bits 
while shedding the complexity. I suppose arch power users would 
disagree, but for me, ArX hits the sweet spot.

I can't think of how any product could be data-compatible with arch and 
yet maintain this critical simplicity (and friendliness toward non-unix 
operating systems).

[While I was composing this, Walter posted a note describing many other 
incompatible data format changes that were made to add functionality.]

If bazaar/baz/baz-ng are able to simplify the arch UI dramatically, I 
would consider using one of them. I'm skeptical that they will be able 
to make enough changes, unless they also choose to abandon data 
compatibility with arch. But that's just speculation. ArX is here and 
working today.

My personal position is that ArX shares no code with arch, is not data 
compatible, and has a distinctly different command set. Thus, as far as 
I can tell, it is no longer part of the arch family of projects. It is, 
of course, a member of the community of distributed RCS projects which 
includes darcs and monotone.

Of course, I speak only for myself, and not for Walter or anyone else!

Kevin